American Airlines reveals long-awaited makeover

American Airlines Inc. unveiled its first new livery and logo since 1968 on Thursday, giving itself a new look only a few weeks before it’s expected to decide whether to merge with US Airways Group Inc.

Of course, the timing of the two became a major topic at a news conference in which American’s chairman and chief executive, Tom Horton, talked about the rebranding.

First, Horton said the two issues — merger and rebranding — were separate. Second, he said American needed to go ahead with the new look because in two weeks it is introducing a new flagship aircraft, the Boeing 777-300ER, that needs painting.

Horton also said US Airways had no input into the rebranding and didn’t get an advance look at it.

“We are competitors today, so we didn’t think it appropriate to discuss it with them,” Horton said. “I will tell you that on my drive home last night [Wednesday], I called my good friend Doug Parker and informed him of what we were doing as a courtesy. So I did do that, and we had a very nice chat.”

Parker, US Airways chairman and CEO, has led the effort to bring the two companies together, almost since the time that American and parent AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 29, 2011.

Horton said he doubts there’ll be a need to revise the livery again if there is a merger.

“Oh, I wouldn’t think so,” he said. “This look sort of speaks for itself. This is I think a very powerful image for the new American, whether we proceed with a combination or not. I would think that most folks would agree.”

Horton declined to reveal the cost for the makeover, which will take a number of years to complete as new airplanes arrive, existing airplanes are repainted and the carrier’s airport facilities and other sites are converted to the new look.

To publicize the changes, American kicked off a new advertising campaign handled by McCann Worldgroup. McCann’s FutureBrand unit worked with American on the rebranding.

The new design takes the iconic American Airlines eagle — a consistent part of American’s logo and livery for nearly 80 years — off the aircraft’s tail. Instead, a stylized flag of red, white and blue decorates the tail.

Where the old design has red and white stripes on the fuselage and spells out “American” in red along the side, the new one drops the stripes and displays “American” in dark gray letters.

The AA eagle is retained only as a head piercing a diagonal slash of blue and red in front of the American name.

US Airways spokesman Ed Stewart praised the rebranding.

“American Airlines is one of the premier iconic brands in the world. We applaud our friends at American as the new brand elements and livery mark the culmination of a significant amount of work and coordination, and clearly those efforts have produced a compelling result,” Stewart said.

The unions representing American’s pilots and flight attendants expressed hope that there’s a merger with US Airways in American’s future.

“A new paint job is fine, but it does not fix American’s network deficiencies and toxic culture. So we continue our steadfast support of a merger with US Airways and not doubling down on the network strategy that brought us into bankruptcy,” Allied Pilots Association spokesman Dennis Tajer said.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants called the rebranding “the end of an era.”

“APFA is excited about the change this means for our employer — we hope this rebranding is the first of many steps toward making American Airlines a company that we can be proud to work for and one that can grow and compete in today’s marketplace,” the union said in a prepared statement.

“That can only happen with a merger inside bankruptcy. A merger is the best path forward for our company, our industry, the employees and the traveling public,” it added.

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.